By tradition, all schools close down for a Thursday and Friday in November to give teachers a chance to catch up on their shopping. It's good for the local economy, it gives the kids a much needed break and it usually causes a nightmare for parents who need to find child care for those days. As veterans of this phenomenon, we knew we had to plan something.

Jane is in the choir and they decided to use this time to go to Vienna and Budapest to explore other realms and their musical roots. Oddly they scheduled the trip so as to miss as little school as possible -- a departure from the past. Jane was going to room with Jill and seemed happy to have her tags on her bags while Benjamin created this leaf concoction for her to bring along. They did the brother and sister poses with choking and odd looks before getting it right the third time by which time I had recorded this boy who Lucy wanted to see. Matt Traylor was there as was Elspeth and so the journey could begin.